CUA Volleyball Wins a Five Set Thriller

Senior Amy O’Connor recording one of her 16 kills in the win Courtesy of CUACardinals.com

By Jared Prenda

The Catholic University Lady Card’s Women’s Volleyball team pulled out an impressive 5-set home win last night over the Frostburg State University Bobcats. The win brings the team’s overall record 9-6 on the year, but they are 4-1 at the Raymond A. Dufour center.

The opening set of the matchup was an excellent indicator for how hard fought the rest of the competition would be. The two sides traded points all the way throughout the match, with neither side gaining more than a 3 point advantage over the other. The Cardinals were eventually victorious when they strung together 4 straight points to win 26-24.

Senior setter Michelle Seals had an impressive outing for the Birds, with the 4-year starter recording a double-double of 46 assists and 11 digs. The team co-captain’s performance brought her to to 464 assists on the year as she chases her 4th straight year of 1,000+ assists.

The team got off to a much slower start in the second set as the Frostburg team was able to pull away and win the set 25-15. The Cards were able to bounce back however in the third set to win 25-17. The team dropped the fourth set 25-20 to force the game to final, deciding 5th set.

Seals remarked on her team’s performance in such a tightly contested match.

“It was a mentally exhausting game because Frostburg was an aggressive, fast, and smart team. We had to mix things up a lot,” Seals said. “But we stuck with it and pushed through, eventually being able to outplay and outsmart them.”

The team was lead by impressive efforts from hitters Amy O’Connor and Maria Cristina Juelle, with the senior classmates both recording 16 kills. The pair was instrumental in sealing the game for CUA, with Juelle recording 4 kills in the final set. O’Connor hit a rocket to give the Birds a 12-9 lead in the 5th set which sparked 3 straight Frostburg attacking errors to give the Cards the win.

“It was definitely a night of comebacks for our team,” said Seals, a California bay native. “We came from behind in the first set to win it, came back after losing the 2nd set, and came back to win the 5th. Of course we’d prefer to not have to always come back, but we have a fairly young team this year, so it was great to have veterans of the volleyball program and newbies come together and push through.”

The team returns to action this weekend as they play a Saturday, September 23rd double header on the road against Stevenson and St. Mary’s in Maryland. The team looks to carry the momentum from such a hard fought match with them into the weekend as they face two tough matchups. The team also faced a great adversity in their home court, as Frostburg supporters well outnumbered those of CUA and brought the noise to the Dufour Center.

They return to home action next Wednesday, September 27th as they face rival McDaniel. The game will serve as much more than a rivalry however, since the team plans to use the game as a fundraiser to help those impacted by the effects of Hurricanes Maria and Irma. Four members of the team are from either Puerto Rico or the Miami area that were both greatly impacted by the storms.

Furthermore, the team will be holding a bake sale from Monday through Wednesday next week to further help the cause.